Category: Enforcement Actions

A federal grand jury in the District of Maryland returned an indictment that was unsealed today charging two men for their roles in schemes to defraud investors in CytoDyn Inc., a publicly traded biotechnology company (OTCQB: CYDY) based in Vancouver, Washington. According to court documents, Nader Pourhassan, 59, of Lake Oswego, Oregon, and Kazem Kazempour, 69, of Potomac, Maryland, allegedly engaged in a conspiracy to defraud investors through false and misleading representations and material omissions relating to CytoDyn’s development of…

According to the company’s admissions and court documents, between 2010 and 2014, Honeywell UOP conspired to offer an approximately $4 million bribe to a then-high-ranking executive of Petróleo Brasileiro S.A (Petrobras) in Brazil. Specifically, Honeywell UOP offered the bribe to secure improper advantages in order to obtain and retain business from Petrobras in connection with Honeywell UOP’s efforts to win an approximately $425 million contract from Petrobras to design and build an oil refinery called Premium.

Thrower alleged that from January 2008 through April 2017, Academy had an underwriting process that led employees to disregard FHA rules and falsely certify compliance with underwriting requirements. Thrower further alleged that, as a result of Academy’s knowingly deficient mortgage underwriting practices, the government paid insurance claims on loans improperly underwritten by Academy.

“Lenders that knowingly cause the government to guarantee loans that are materially deficient put both homeowners and the public fisc at risk,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brian M. Boynton, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division. “The settlement announced today is a result of the relator’s efforts to develop this case in litigation and complements the department’s actions to prevent abuse of government programs designed to foster home ownership.” 

On November 25, 2022, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (“DPC”) released a decision fining Meta Platforms, Inc. (“Meta”) €265 million for a 2019 data leak involving the personal information of approximately 533 million Facebook users worldwide. In the decision, the DPC argued that Meta failed to comply with the GDPR’s requirement of providing privacy “by design and default” when it failed to prevent the disclosure of users’ phone numbers, email addresses, full names, dates of birth and other personal information on…

BOSTON – A former co-owner of the now-defunct New England Compounding Center (NECC) was sentenced today in federal court in Boston in connection with conspiring to defraud the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Gregory Conigliaro, 57, of Southborough, Mass. was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard G. Stearns to one year in prison and one year of supervised release. In December 2018, Conigliaro was convicted following a 41-day jury trial of one count of conspiracy to defraud the United…

Please note that Bittrex is a crypto exchange / trading platform. Crypto exchanges are like merchants that sell and trade cryptocurrencies, while cryptocurrencies (like Monero, Bitcoin, ZCash, etc.) are the ‘products’ sold by the merchants. The failure of a merchant does not entail that there is a failure in the product. Cryptocurrency experts recommend that if you are going to own any cryptocurrency, you should never leave it on an exchange. Keep it on a hard wallet such as Ledger…

Jun 27, 2022. The European Union’s governing body has published a list of new sanctions against Moscow, accusing Russia of a “continuing war of aggression against Ukraine.” The sixth batch of restrictions since February contains a phased embargo on oil imports, restrictions against some Russian banks and broadcasters, and the blacklisting of people Brussels accuses of war crimes. The Council of the European Union officially announced the sanctions package on Friday. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy…

May 31, 2022. The Department of Justice, together with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), announced a settlement that, if approved by a federal court, will require Twitter Inc. to pay $150 million in civil penalties and implement robust compliance measures to protect users’ data privacy. The settlement will resolve allegations that Twitter violated the FTC Act and an administrative order issued by the FTC in March 2011 by misrepresenting how it would make use of users’ nonpublic contact information. In…

May 18, 2022. Greece’s Health Minister Thanos Plevris announced plans to sue Novartis over what he alleges are illegal practices. In addition to demanding compensation, the country is implementing a three-point plan. The plan includes a mandate to set up a trading committee, appointing a U.S. law firm to defend the rights of Greece, and “an order for bringing an action before the Greek Justice for claiming the compensation for the insult of the Greek state with a reservation for…

Germany’s federal police office, criminal prosecutors and the country’s financial watchdog BaFin raided Deutsche Bank’s headquarters in Frankfurt on Friday, prosecutors said in a statement. The prosecutors said that a search warrant was issued by Frankfurt’s district court, based on the suspicion that unnamed Deutsche Bank employees may have violated anti-money laundering laws. They declined to give further details. Deutsche Bank confirmed the raid and said it was linked to suspicious activity reports issued by the bank that flagged potential…

  On March 31, 2022, the US expanded the focus of US-Russia related sanctions to include the aerospace, electronics and marine sectors of the Russian economy. Since the onset of the Russian-Ukraine conflict, the US has designated over 700 individuals and entities (persons) as Specially Designated Nationals (SDNs). As the assets of such SDNs – and entities they owned 50% or more – that are in the US or within the possession or control of US persons are blocked, such…

  On 24 March 2022, the UK Government announced 65 new Russian sanctions, targeted at strategic industries (including defence and transport), banks and business elites. The new sanctions, particularly those targeted at CEO’s and business leaders, represent a shift in the UK Government’s approach, which previously focussed sanctions activity around financial institutions and oligarchs. Those subject to the sanctions will have their UK assets frozen and no UK citizen or company will be able to do business with them. Individuals…